10:05 am Sat, Jul 13, 2024
NASA is testing a new laser communications system to more efficiently send large amounts of data to and from space. In the time-honored tradition of the Earth’s Internet, the first images sent were cats, actually cats, dogs, birds, chickens, cows, snakes, pigs and more.
Using NASA’s first two-way, end-to-end laser relay system, photos and videos of beloved pets flew through space via laser communications links at 1.2 gigabits per second—faster than most home internet speeds.
NASA
NASA has traditionally used radio frequency communications, but infrared allows them to pack more information into the transmission. An earlier test of laser communications inspired the use of images and videos of pets. In a demonstration last year, video of Taters the Cat, whose owner was a Jet Propulsion Lab employee, was sent more than 19 million miles back to Earth from NASA’s Psyche orbiter.
I hope this trend continues and all future NASA test communications use pets. Photos, videos, meows — the possibilities are endless and everyone loves showing off their pets.
earlier: Elegy for Ingenuity, a small helicopter